Sony Honami shows signs of notification light

Notification lights are one of those great little features that can go seriously underappreciated. If your phone never had one, you don’t know what you’re missing, and if it does have one, you probably take it for granted; it’s only after getting used to those unobtrusive, gentle reminders of messages on your phone you need to attend to that their absence really starts becoming palpable. While so far there’s been no sign of any such light on the upcoming Sony Honami, a newly leaked image sure seems to suggest that there is, indeed, a notification light hidden away.

While we’ve seen that cutout along the phone’s top edge before, our assumption had been that it was merely the phone’s earpiece. This new shot of Honami charging shows a concealed LED illuminating the slot; presumably, indications like this will also be used to alert users of other changes in the phone’s status.

Sony’s been hit-and-miss with notification lights in the past – making cool hardware like the light bar on NXT series models, but coming up a little lacking in the software department. We’re hoping to see a stronger effort with Honami, which we expect to get some hands-on time with one week from today at the IFA in Berlin.

Stephen has been writing about electronics since 2008, which only serves to frustrate him that he waited so long to combine his love of gadgets and his degree in writing. In his spare time, he collects console and arcade game hardware, is a motorcycle enthusiast, and enjoys trapping blue crabs. Stephen’s first mobile device was a 624 MHz Dell Axim X30, which he’s convinced is still a viable platform. Stephen longs for a market where phones are sold independently of service, and bandwidth is cheap and plentiful; he’s not holding his breath. In the meantime, he devours smartphone news and tries to sort out the juicy bits